Turntable upgrade, tweaks, or stay put?

If you are considering tweaks, one I made on my tt was adding the
Audiomods Classic arm - with the beadblast finish and gold counterweight
and the micrometer VTA (which you only really need if you change carts a
lot)

A friend has an Audiomods Series 5 on a technics TT and is using it with a
Van den Hul Colibri cartridge and it sounds amazing

At the other end of the spectrum - I use it with the Dennon dl103 - it makes
that cartridge sound amazing also, but not quite as good as the Colibri :-)

It's primarily for Rega tt's but Jeff at Audiomods is able to customize to
some extent. He makes a mounting plate for the technics 1200/1200 direct
drive tt's, so he might have one for the mmf7

Drop him an email (with TT/cartridge details) asking if it is possible -

jeff@audiomods.co.uk

He's very responsive and will answer any questions.

His work is very high quality and his arms bring out details often left behind

He also offer Eichman Silver Bullet RCA's if you go with the one piece
harness (highly recommended) which improve dynamics, fidelity and
sound stage - well worth it.

Regards

Scoutmaster is a good table.... put in a Dyna, Benz, Soundsmith, Ortofon (they all sound different) and smile.

Agree with Stringreen.

Also, if you haven't lubed the main platter bearing and motor bearing, that's a simple tweak. Be sure to use the right lubricants. A center clamp and periphery ring clamp are also reasonably priced tweaks and will help a lot. You can pick up preowned clamps on eBay or A'gon for a fair price. And for goodness sake, don't puncture a finger on the spindle needle.

As far as cartridges are concerned, I've tried the Dynavector 20X2 (HO), Soundsmith VPI Zephyr and the Ortofon 2M Black. Yes they do sound different from each other. In the end I settled on the Lyra Kleos. IMO, I like the Lyra the best. Here again, look for preowned. New MSRP will put your wallet on oxygen. No comment about the Benz. Never owned one.

Btw, I used to own the Lyra Delos. It's a very nice cartridge too, but I ultimately settled on its bigger brother, the Kleos.

Couple of points about the Ortofon 2M Black. I seem to recall that it's a high compliance cartridge -- having a 22 compliance factor. I think the VPI JMW arm does better with medium or low compliance cartridges. I suspect the 2M may have had tracking issues and/or the 2M's output voltage may (??) have been a little "hot" for my phono pre. In any case, I returned it. I just couldn't get it to work well.

Similar comments about the Clearaudio Virtuoso and Maestro. They are high compliance cartridges. I had bass ringing issues that Mike (VPI Service) and I couldn't quite get our arms around.

Last point about output voltage. Be sure that whatever cartridge you settle on, its output voltage meshes with your phono pre. My phono pre's does 58 db of gain and the linestage does 12 db of gain. The bottom line is that the Kleos is the lowest output cartidge (.5 mV) my system can handle, unless I start talking a SUT which I am not inclined to do. Just another artifact.

Just sharing. Let us know how you make out.

Thanks a lot for the great advice. I lubricated the platter bearing with white lithium grease, but I am not sure exactly what to use for the motor. What do you suggest?

Check the VPI web site. You can access the Scout's manual there. It will tell you, or just call Jack or Mike. I seem to recall a teeny tiny drop of 40W motor oil, or something like that. VPI may even sell a little stick of it.